The hospitalisation of yoga guru Ramdev may have cast a shadow on his campaign against corruption. At the same time, the deterioration in his health, especially a drastic fall in blood pressure and pulse rate, is also not being taken lightly in the context of the ancient Indian practices of ayurveda, yoga and spiritualism that thrived for centuries and have now developed into a multi-billion-dollar industry in the world as well.
“In just seven days, he (Ramdev) collapsed. Ultimately, he was taken to hospital for cure. This shows there must be some fault in his yoga,” said a top doctor at the government-run Doon Hospital here.
Ramdev, who enjoy a mass following, is a strong proponent of the Indian philosophy. Questions are now being asked on why Ramdev could not simply cope with the fast when these ancient practices are said to be very rich. “The fault lies somewhere,” the doctor quipped.
There may not be straight answers. But experts in the field have now appealed to the powers that be not to allow any further damage to these ancient systems which may not auger well for the overall growth of the indigenous Indian industry. They say issues related to Ramdev must be separated from ayurveda and yoga.
Puja Bhardwaj, director of Ayurveda department of the state government, said there should be no link between Ramdev’s hospitalisation and the yoga. “Developments related to Ramdev will not affect our strong Indian system — be it yoga or ayurveda,” she emphasised.
Uttarakhand has achieved nine per cent growth during the past three years powered by strong industrialisation. Now it is focusing on spiritualism, yoga and ayurveda to sustain the momentum.
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“It is very sad that when we are discussing Ramdev in public, we inadvertently are also raising doubts over the rich Indian practice of ayurveda and yoga, especially by those who are opposing Ramdev. It is high time we separated Ramdev from yoga and ayurveda,” said Amit Bhatt, general manager of A V Herbals, a Dehradun-based ayurveda company.
The hotel industry in India is also offering packages based on ayurveda and yoga. “We must separate the Ramdev episode from yoga and ayurveda,” said S P Kochar, president of the Uttarakhand Hotel Association.
Alongwith Uttarakhand, Kerala, too, has used rich Indian systems to boost tourism.